Green Things

This past week I caught up on watching Hugh's War on Plastic, it is pretty unsettling stuff I have to say and a lot of it just leaves you feeling a bit helpless.  We try to do our best but as the show highlighted, the shops don't make it easy for you and there is also the fact that as fast as we are trying to reduce our consumption the manufacturers are setting targets to increase output of the stuff.

I was asked this week by a colleague to make some reusable scrubbies for taking off make-up, she had bought some from a shop and wanted more.  I used materials I had and made twelve small circular ones and a little drawstring bag to wash them in.  I had a nice photo to share but yesterday my phone did an update and now everything is in the wrong place and all the photo's taken before yesterday have transferred small and out of focus!  I am disappointed about that and will get my son to look at it when he is home later, as I am not one of the phone generation it will take me twice as long to sort it.

This evening I have been altering t-shirts for another colleague, she buys them and then likes them shorter, with smaller sleeves and a lower neck.  It is one way of getting what you want, a lot of people won't shop charity shops but if they did they would see that you can buy things you love cheaply then get them altered.  It is still often cheaper than buying new and you can have them fitted to you.

It seems there is a lot of action from the public on reducing our consumption but very little from the government or big business. I still see a lot of unnecessary  packaging everywhere and lots of plastic that doesn't serve a purpose.  My husband just feels I think too much about these things but there are too many people who don't think about it at all perhaps.  A lot of the plastic free shops are in affluent areas also and I would imagine many people struggling on a tight budget are more worried about buying  affordable food for the week than they are about our long term futures on the planet.

On a lighter note summer term is almost over, there is lots of winding down going on, people moving on and new faces appearing at work.  I was sad to say goodbye to a colleague today, she  started at the same time as me and has been wonderful to work with.  I am sure we will be seeing her again soon.  She very kindly bought me this plant and I will leave you with an image of that after my initial grumpy start over the state of the planet.